This trip was more of a tourist trip than all of our other trips. Since we only had 4 days in Jordan as opposed to 4 months in Israel, we had to pack everything touristy to see in Jordan in this trip and see the biblical sites as well.
I love the culture of the Middle East. The only thing that I don't love is the culture of the tourist spots. Everything is Americanized. It's like the difference between meeting some nice people who are relaxing and grilling out and meeting a salesman who wants to sell you a vacuum. Tourist spots just aren't as real as the rest of the places. They are still fun though. Here are the pictures!
Ok, so this was not in Jordan. I was sick for a couple days and had some free time, so I played hearts. I've been trying to get a perfect score for a while now, and finally did it!
In Jerash, the pillars were amazing. There will be more pictures of the pillars coming up, but I loved this photo.
This is the King and Queen. The Jordanians love their royal family and pictures are up of them everywhere. They have done a lot for the poor and needy families.
Here I am at Jerash surrounded by pillars. This was like a meeting place, and there was a stone in the middle where people would give speeches.
The Cardo street. Cardo means heart, and the Cardo street means that it is the heart of the city. This is the most important street in the city of Jerash. On each side, there would be shops. This is from the Roman times.
Another picture of the cool pillars
Here we are at the Jabbok River. This is the professor of our class. He is about to tell us the story of Jacob wrestling with God. It happened here, or somewhere close to here, as he was walking to meet his brother Esau.
This was at Petra. Esther here is standing in the place where you are supposed to stand to ask the gods for forgiveness. I find it fascinating that almost every culture feels the need for forgiveness, and each one goes about it in sometimes similar, sometimes radically different ways. No need to go into comparative religions here, but the concept in Christianity is both similar and radically different than other religions as well. By the way, Esther here has that big of a smile almost 24/7. I've never met someone who smiles as much as she.
Here I am at Petra. This place was simply amazing. Oh yeah, and if you recognize it, you might be thinking of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Jealous? You should be.
This bridge was at Petra. Not very sturdy. There's Dan and his wife Paula in front of me, two really good friends of mine here.
Dan and I ran up tonnnnnnns of stairs. It was ridiculous. At the end of these endless stairs (that makes sense, right?), there was nothing. I mean, it was a good view, but we were expecting something awesome. Surely they would tell us before we walked up a thousand stairs that nothing was up there, but no. They didn't. And we were fairly disappointed.
This is again at Petra, after we ran up another huge flight of stairs. This time, though, we reached a cool monastery, which is the next picture.
This is the amazing monastery carved into the rock. Yep, this place is simply amazing.
Wow. This is the view of the Arnon canyon. It's breathtaking, fo shizzle.
This is a picture of all the girls on our trip.They are my good friends, and I am sad we won't all be taking any more long trips!
Here is all the guys. We have had a great time!
These next couple weeks will be basically only writing papers. Most of us are really behind on our papers and need to catch up. Also thrown in there is trying to see as much as possible (and possibly taking a trip to Mt. Sinai) before we leave in less than three weeks. Wow, less than three weeks. I will really miss being here, being with my friends here. It has been a great experience in every way. I'll save all that mushy stuff for another blog, but all that to say that it will be an insane three weeks. In fact, it's going to be an insane couple of months. And in May, I will graduate from Seminary which will be insane. I've said insane far too much, so I'll end it there.
I love you all! Can't wait to see most of you soon!
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